How HR Leaders Can Effectively Coach and Support Other Leaders

Tiffany Duncan

The Docentus Group

In today’s complex and fast-paced work environment, effective leadership is more crucial than ever. HR leaders play a pivotal role in guiding and supporting other leaders within an organization, especially regarding the development and support of district personnel. To have a truly effective leadership model complete with meaningful coaching and support for others, we must first practice and model what we teach. This article outlines the best practices for HR leaders to coach and support other district leaders, focusing on presence, engagement, follow-through, and follow-up.

It is best to view this article with the dual purposes intended. First, the practices below serve as a reminder of how to build, develop, and support other district leaders from an HR leadership perspective. Second, these leadership support and coaching strategies transcend into all leadership positions, allowing this article to serve a secondary purpose as training for all school administrators. Modeling effective leadership skills within HR while developing and supporting other district leaders is an important HR function that is vital to student educational success.

1. Presence. Make time for coaching. Time management is essential for providing meaningful support and supervision. Shifting the mindset from “not having time” to “making time” is key. Here are a few strategies to ensure you can dedicate adequate time to coaching:

• Organize: Structure your day efficiently to maximize the use of your time.

• Prioritize: Focus on activities that align with your leadership goals.

• Calendar: Schedule specific blocks of time for coaching or support sessions.

• Avoid Multitasking: Concentrate fully on coaching or support tasks.

2. Engagement. Build relationships and foster development.

Engagement involves active efforts to connect with and develop leaders. As leaders, we must actively work toward building positive relationships with others so that coaching and support efforts are trusted and well-received by others.

Authentic and meaningful engagement is crucial in a limited applicant pool scenario, where it becomes vital to invest in the growth of aspiring, emerging, and seasoned district leaders:

• Build Relationships: Establish connections to better facilitate difficult conversations.

• Aim to Develop: When feasible, focus on improvement and remediation first.

• Focus: Concentrate on a few areas at a time to maximize the impact of your coaching.

3. Follow-Through. Ensure the personal progress of others.

Reliable follow-through is critical to achieving coaching goals. Without it, even the bestlaid plans can fail. Follow-through is the responsibility of the coach and includes the collective support actions you provide to help ensure the individual’s progress along his or her personal improvement path.

• Mean What You Say: Avoid making empty promises.

• Set Realistic Goals: Ensure the goals are attainable within given resources and time

• Document Tasks: Keep a record of coaching tasks and deadlines to track progress.

4. Follow-Up. Ensure organizational improvements. Follow-up is essential to ensure that improvements are being made and to document the effectiveness and outcome of the coaching process. At first glance, follow-through and follow-up appear synonymous, but they are very different. Follow-through is the coach acting to provide the agreed support and ensure individual improvements. Follow-up is a circling back to assess that goals were met, intended outcomes were achieved, and improvements are permanent.

• Document Efforts: Adequate documentation helps to track progress.

• Complete the Cycle: Regularly schedule observations, meetings, and check-ins.

• Praise and Needs: Start with positive feedback, then address areas for improvement.

While follow-through builds trust and supports personal improvements along the coaching journey, follow-up ensures that the coaching and improvements initiated are continuing at an appropriate pace and have begun to illustrate organizational improvement in climate, culture, or morale, with the ultimate goal of producing more effective student learning environments.

Concluding Remarks With Additional Strategies For Meaningful Support

Meaningful support is rooted in the four factors above and is focused on building strong relationships as a foundation for fostering individual and organizational improvement. Here are a few departing tips and tools for how to provide meaningful support:

1. Observe. Understand the leaders you are supporting and their work environment.

• Visit their campuses and departments regularly.

• Offer to meet or check in at their space instead of yours.

• Listen to their concerns, ideas, and constraints before making coaching decisions.

2. Meet. Set clear expectations and provide feedback in regularly scheduled meetings.

• Schedule meetings and check-ins yourself and share an invite with the administrator(s).

• Be on time and reliable when you set meetings with others; do not ever no-show.

• On rare occasions, if you cannot attend a scheduled meeting, move it to a later time or date with email notice, rather than cancel or delete the calendar entry.

3. Model. Demonstrate effective leadership practices.

• Be respectful, reliable, and relatable.

• Serve as the working field expert, not the scholarly textbook expert.

• Align your time with your professional goals and remain student centered.

4. Document. Record all supports, even in simple formats like notes, logs, or summary emails.

• Keep a log of dates, times, and meetings; you never know when you will need that data

• Appropriately scaffold the type and formality of documentation based on the situation.

• Regardless of formality level, effective documentation is timely, succinct, and clear.

As you consider and implement the tips and tools within this article, please remember these important words by former Bruins Coach John Wooden: “The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example.”

We work in a profession with a noble cause and the ability to positively impact the lives of children. This important, life-altering work we do is difficult and the hours are long, so make sure the hours are worth it. In the end, it is the students who will gain or lose based on the leadership we practice and share with others.

About The Docentus Group

The Docentus Group specializes in providing consultancy services aimed at enhancing individual and organizational performance. They offer tools and strategies to support leadership development and organizational improvement in a variety of contexts, including the domain of Human Resources for public schools.

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